On April 17, two days before the world premiere of the film "1506" - The Lisbon Genocide", the auditorium of the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv and Temple Israel of Greater Miami receive that cinematographic production. The viewings are followed by debates. The speakers will be, in Tel Aviv, Michal Cotler-Wunsh (Israeli special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism) and Raheli Baratz-Rix (World Zionist Organization Head to Combat Antisemitism), and in Miami, Dr. Henry Green (Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Miami) and Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff (Director of the University of Miami Holocaust Teacher Institute).
More than three thousand Jews were brutally assassinated and burnt in Lisbon between 19 and 21 Abril 1506. The king and the court were away from the city escaping the effects of the bubonic plague and no one could stop the fury of the people, which in addition to Portuguese also included seamen and foreigners. The Jews, who were accused of spreading the disease and practicing a forbidden religion, were targeted on a scale never before seen in the country. The bonfires with burning bodies were as tall as the houses.
The Lisbon genocide will be shown in a film that premières on 19 April 2024, the day that marks yet another anniversary of the start of the atrocities that exceeded all limits and were the fruit of centuries of stereotyping. It will be a worldwide premiere, spoken and subtitled in English. The trailer has just been shown.
The Jewish Community of Oporto is the producer of this film which was made in 2023. It has announced that “the project is not commercial, rather educational and mainly addressed to the younger generations. The film is short, incisive and will be freely available on the Internet on platforms such as YouTube. Many young people are not fond of long, commercial historical films”. The organisation added that “the Lisbon massacre has practically vanished from Portugal’s collective memory, is not included in school curricula and has all but been forgotten. It is even little-known abroad.”
The historical recreation included scenes with hundreds of extras and had the technical support of the "Alberto Benveniste" Chair of Sephardic Studies.
This is not the first film to be produced by the Jewish Community of Oporto. Included in such productions, all made by the Oporto company Lightbox, is the film which won the most international awards ever in Portugal: “1618”, recounting an action of the Inquisition that took place in the city of Oporto.
The Community also has two museums for educational purposes: the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Museum. The later “received 100 thousand school-age teenagers in the last two years, corresponding to about 10% of Portugal’s teenage population”, states the organisation.
